It is no longer a secret to anyone that the work of political technologists involves distorting reality, skillfully manipulating facts, and presenting the public with distorted information. This happened with the Mayor of Irpin, Oleksandr Markushyn. Over the past two years, PR professionals and media specialists have done everything to create the image of a heroic mayor instead of a corrupt one.
How this happened is explained by the platform “ZNAI!“.
The image of a heroic mayor was conceived and formed for Markushyn at the start of the full-scale invasion by his then-close associate and political consultant Petro Shcherbyna. He, along with the mayor’s assistant Ruslana Lavrenyuk, handled the main communications with international and central Ukrainian media.
We all know that it is PR specialists who create myths. Since Markushyn became mayor from the "New Faces" party, the party leader Volodymyr Karplyuk tasked Shcherbyna with creating a heroic image of Oleksandr Markushyn.
Markushyn himself did not fight personally for a single day, and the real defense of Irpin was carried out by the brave and powerful guys from the Territorial Defence, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the DIU, special units, and battalions of various subordination.
The ideology of the media campaign had two points: in February-March, constant TikTok-format videos on behalf of Markushyn (the texts for these videos were written by journalists from the Irpin TV channel ITV, the Telegram channel of Markushyn was run by Petro Shcherbyna and his team) and the mass dissemination of information in English and German was conducted through the Telegram channel IRPIN UKRAINE Press-centre. By the way, the volunteer translator for this channel was the current director of the Irpin Lyceum of Innovative Technologies, Mariya Hostin.
Only after the de-occupation of Kyiv region did the community’s residents realize that a substitution of concepts had occurred. After some time, the soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Mykhailo Sapon openly stated that Oleksandr Markushyn is a “TikToker warrior.”
The foundation for creating a pseudo-image of a heroic mayor was the book "Battle for Irpin" authored by Petro Shcherbyna. The publication of the book caused a serious resonance, and Markushyn gave it as a gift to a significant number of international guests of the Irpin community.
Based on the book "Battle for Irpin", the film "Irpin’s Stronghold" was created, which was released on the anniversary of the de-occupation of Kyiv region in Ukrainian and English. The film clearly presents a biased image of Oleksandr Markushyn, depicting him as a super-hero, although, according to local activists, Markushyn came to Irpin only to shoot his video messages.
The real defence of Irpin in February-March 2022 was led by Volodymyr Fedchenko "Kaskad" and Volodymyr Korotya "Povstanets" (commander) as well as commanders of special units of different levels and subordination, including DIU, Territorial Defence, and SSU units. In the defense of Irpin, units such as "Carpathian Sich", the Foreign Legion, the Georgian Legion, and others also participated.
The mystification of Markushyn’s image was further enhanced by former Mayor of Irpin Volodymyr Karplyuk, who, to show Irpin as the city recovering the fastest in Ukraine, created and financed two projects - the NGO "Irpin Recovery Fund" (founders Volodymyr Karplyuk, Serhiy Taruta) and the Irpin Reconstruction Summit (mobilizing and coordinating 200 architects who prepared recovery projects for the Irpin community).
Karplyuk paid for Markushyn’s trips to the USA and EU countries. It is said that before Markushyn’s speech in the European Parliament in Brussels, Karplyuk made him study a two-page A4 text in Ukrainian for three hours straight. As a result, Markushyn still had to read the text “off the sheet”.
Irpin activist Lyudmyla Pershyn wrote about Oleksandr Markushyn on her Facebook page on November 22, 2023: "Irpin residents, do you want a fairy tale about the ’hero mayor’? Then brew some calming tea, sit comfortably so you don’t fall, and read the fantasies of the ’hero’... It’s funny to read how the one who fled himself talks about a neighbor who fled."
This refers to Markushyn’s public claim that he personally, with his people, liberated Bucha from the occupiers. This caused a series of jokes and memes. The mayor of Bucha, Anatoliy Fedoruk, even registered a humorous petition to award Markushyn the title of Hero of Ukraine.
Since July 2023, the myth of the "hero Markushyn", who single-handedly liberated Kyiv region from the enemy, has been promoted by black PR specialist and former producer of the show "Orel and Reshka" Taisiya Yusupova.
Ms. Yusupova created a personal press service for Markushyn, the funds for which were siphoned off by inflating the salaries of the employees of the Irpin City Council’s executive committee. According to analysts, Markushyn diverted more than 17 million UAH from the city budget for these purposes. At the same time, the shadow press service employees of Markushyn were not officially employed anywhere, and the laundered salary from the Irpin budget was paid out in envelopes.
This story clearly shows that Ukraine’s best sons give their lives for the country, and then, thanks to the media, corrupt individuals and fraudsters like Oleksandr Markushyn become heroes.